No sound 50+% of the time in calls, until reboot

@ExFairphoneUser
You have to ask several times in a raw that you want your phone to be swapped.
We are now 2 people that had their phone “fixed” by a unit swap. (“fixed” but not fixed, see details in my previous post)
If it follows the same scheme as me, it will take you 3 weeks, and 1 email every few days.
Point out that you have done all the tests they asked you to perform, and that it doe not help.
Also say that it is their responsibility to provide a working unit, because you already fulfilled your part of the deal, that is paying theme.

Well as I have stated, it’s not quite appropriate to ask for the phone to be swapped, the procedure is to ask for a repair and if that cannot be achieved then it is Fairphone’s obligation to supply a replacement. The user of the duff phone is not required to request a working phone, it is Fairphone’s obligation to do that within the 2 year warranty period if they cannot fix it and the fault is not of the users making ~ which can be difficult to prove :frowning:

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For some background info and insight take a look at this actual posting:

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So @Peter_Hofinger seems right. My wife starts to reproduce the problem: she knows that when she sees a specific ad in the “Polygram” app, she will have no sound and won’t be heard then. I’ve seen it repeated twice. I’ve asked her to screenshot the ads when she sees it.

For me, it seems like it’s a software bug, not a hardware. It seems triggered by some really specific ads doing god-knows-what whith the android API :confused:

In the meantime, Fairphone engineers seem to have an incoming fix: An update from our CEO: Reported software issues and our next steps - Fairphone . Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

(in any case: ping @formerFP.Com.Manager because you seem to have ways to report to tech team that the problems comes from some specific ads)

Edit: it seems like the famous add stays in the task manager, even if you have closed the game it appeared in. See the capture below

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I’m having the exactly same problem with my FP3+ and already contacted the support. So far only with the response that they will get back to me soon (one month ago!)
Now I’m reading this thread with big astonishment. A thread which is ongoing since 2019 still without a working solution. I will wait until the announced update beginning of March. Sad, that I had to look it up in the community myself instead of being informed.

Sure that I won’t be able to recommend to anybody to buy a fairphone. Waiting 3 years for essential updates is just inacceptable. A pity! :frowning:

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear, that you have this problem.
But hopefully this issue will be solved soon.
Have you read the posting by rae I have already linked to above?

Just one little correction regarding maths:
The Fairphone 3 is not even sold for three years, let alone the 3+.
September 2019 to February 2021 is not even one and a half years; so not even half the 3 years you mention. Doesn’t really make it easier or more acceptable, if one has to wait for months.
But - in my personal view - it shows, how complicated it can be to find a bug in an environement as complex as a smartphone and different mobile networks. Plus, it seems, that there might be different reasons, since not everyone reported the troubles connected to ad-infested games. (I am, lucky enough not to have suffered from this bug.)

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This ad, which is a “Unity ad” (so made with the Unity engine) by the way, just created the problem right now. Fingers crossed for the next update to bring good news on this problem.

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Same problem here. I’m caught in a support loop I started on 29th of December. Support is not answering anymore, a call ended in “We will come back to you on a decision of areplacement” three weeks ago.

I do not believe anymore, that Fairphone is able to solve the issue, since it is taking them 1.5 years already. More problematic is, that they are not willing to bear the consequences. The least would be to keep people updated on what roadmap they have to solve the issue. A policy how to deal with people who bought a phone that is not able to make calls. This sounds like a joke: check my new smart phone it’s great except you can’t make a call.

If you are a new owner I suggest you return your product and buy one from another company.

If your issue is that sometimes calls seemingly don’t work until you restart your phone, then the next update should actually fix this problem. If your issue is a bad call quality then you might be correct.

The issue you refer to although similar to the topic title doesn’t mean it’s the same problem, many have similar issues some have been resolved.

The problem of audio sync is not always, or necessary cured by a reboot, that’s just in the title and if you read all the posts you will see the author had resolved it at one point and that was a second hand phone.

Consequently the issue you have complained about since 29th Dec 2020, some two months ago, is not an 18 month old problem for you.

Let’s hope the upcoming software update will resolve this for at least some people experiencing this problem.

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Thank you, @rae! I already got the March update and the blog is a fantastic idea! I think transparency and good communication is key for happy customer. I was curious, will Fairphone share more technical details on the roots that caused this issue?

For me, the issue was fixed with a replacement. I hope that the update will solve this for user who are still facing this issue. Does anyone has first reports on the update? Fingers crossed!

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Good news!!!

I have been following this thread for some weeks now, because I also experienced the problem described here (no sound during phone calls after watching an advert in a game). I was to lazy to contribute myself, but appreciate the information all of you provided.

I received the March update (8901.3.A.0084.20210204) this morning, and tried several phone calls after watching adverts (I have a day off work, so enough time to play games :wink:).

All phone calls worked fine, the problem really seems to be solved with the March update!! :raised_hands:

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After 1 year and a half, would the bug finally be fixed ? :grinning:

It does seem to be fixed with the latest update. Hooray!

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My way of triggering this issue was playing a 24-bit FLAC file. I cannot reproduce the issue by doing that anymore :+1:

EDIT: After applying the 20210204 update, that is!

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The march update does seem to have solve the problem for my wife’s Fairphone 3. Hurray and thanks Fairphone team :fist: :fist: :fist:

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So I was right. It was in fact a software issue and certain users replaced their phones for nothing, only stressing themselves and the support. I’m not defending fairphone because the bug is major and should’ve been solved long time ago, but still, patience wins the day. With that said I was also wrong to think the issue was related to the network provider, which it appears it does not, at least not in most cases? Time will tell.

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Hi Endgame,

Sure, we’re happy to provide more insight. In the update released last week, there were actually 2 different audio issues which were fixed:

The first issue was to do with an irregularity in the communication with the network while performing a call set up, under specific circumstances, which caused the device to stop all audio output until it was reset. This issue was created when we moved to Android 10 in September and it was very complex to find and address. We’re very happy we have finally been able to do that and have improved our internal processes in order to spot the root cause sooner if something similar ever happens again.

The second issue, which affected more of our customers was also a tricky issue to pinpoint, and we poured many, many resources into doing so. However, once we identified the issue, it was relatively easy to fix it. The issue stemmed from the way audio is handled within in-apps advertisements. For a more detailed explanation, our development team would like to share that: “A high-quality audio codec was causing the ASDP component to go into an improper state, making the internal microphone and speaker unusable by the operating system.”

We understand that this was a very frustrating issue for some of our customers and we are very glad to have solved it. :slight_smile:

We are also aware that there is a third issue which is affecting some of our customers, which makes the sound from the microphone sound very muffled during calls. We are concentrating our efforts to determine exactly what is causing this issue. We hope to be able to roll out this fix in the next software release.

As always, if you are experiencing this issue, please reach out to our Customer support team who will be able to keep you personally updated as soon as we have any news.

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Hi Rae. I’m reluctant to load the official support for a personal response, especially as my daughter has and was offered a replacement phone, but the issue you refer to may be closely related to the issue that happens with, for example, WhatsApp.

The main mic doesn’t seem to be enabled and so the person being called hears only a very low volume via mic2, and if I talk directly at the top mic(2) it’s a bit better, not so by talking at the bottom mic.

The problem also is that a) it doesn’t happen all the time as if some other app has control and b) sometimes it sorts itself after a minute.

My daughter waited for the last update 0084 before accepting the replacement but the issue hasn’t been resolved so she is in limbo so to speak.

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Im very happy, that the march Update solved the issue for me finaly! :+1:(at least so far… :wink:)

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